


New You

by glocktopus



Category: Splatoon
Genre: Adopted Sibling Relationship, Background Relationships, F/F, Found Family, Gen, Holidays, New Year's Eve
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-14
Updated: 2019-02-14
Packaged: 2019-10-28 10:02:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,854
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17785325
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glocktopus/pseuds/glocktopus
Summary: Agent 8 celebrates the New Year.





	New You

The kitchen is a little loud, so Eight ducks out and heads to the living room. Marina flashes him a apologetic grin as he goes, fingers forming quick words at her side. _«We’ll be done soon. Sorry!»_

The babble turns into a muffled murmur as Eight makes his way through the dining room into the living room, which is blessedly dim in addition to being quiet. The only illumination comes from the muted TV and from a phone - one of Pearl’s brothers, Eight guesses. The younger one. He gingerly perches on one of the armchairs and watches the TV for a while, picking out which of the members of the crowd in the Square are Octolings under the festive hats and confetti.

“Are they almost done?”

Eight startles; he’d nearly forgotten about Prince. “I...think so. Marina said they’d be done soon. Are your friends waiting on you?”

“Mm. They won’t start until everyone’s there, and Goggles is running late again anyway.” Prince gestures at his phone. Eight doesn’t know much about his friends, aside from quick glimpses when they all show up to celebrate after Turf War competitions. He knows Pearl’s other brother doesn’t like them very much. “Are your friends here yet?”

“Not all of them.” Callie and Marie are hosting a livestream; Marina had it playing on her laptop in the kitchen. Cap was with them - not live, of course, but nearby. He’d said he was sending some of his homemade crabby cakes with Agent 3 earlier, but Eight had a sneaking suspicion that whenever Three showed up they’d be missing more than a few of the cakes. “Four’s here already, but Three’s taking the train in from the Heights.”

Prince nods and goes back to his phone. There’s a few loud bangs from the direction of the kitchen that has them both flinching, then a muffled shout (sounds like Pearl), and then Prince’s brother and his two friends stream into the room, all of them coated in glitter and bits of confetti. Prince snorts and Eight bites down on his tongue, trying not to laugh.

“Oh, get it out now. I don’t want to hear you giggling in the car.” Emperor gives Eight a chilly nod of acknowledgement as Prince grabs his coat, the whole group migrating towards the hallway. The other two wave, seemingly less upset about the whole situation. “And do _not_ speak a word of this to those airheads you insist on hanging out with, understand?”

“Yes, Emperor,” Prince chimes. “Bye, Eight. Happy New Year!”

“Happy New Year,” Eight echoes, at the same time Pearl comes rushing through the dining room, shedding glitter with a manic expression on her face.

“You weren’t gonna leave without saying bye to your _favourite_ sister, were you?”

Marina appears in the ensuing chaos, humming to herself as she sets her laptop down on the coffee table and begins turning on the lights. Four trails in after her, somehow balancing three trays laden with finger food in her hands. She winks at Eight and mouths _‘style’_ as she arranges the trays around the laptop, which is still displaying the Squid Sisters’ livestream.

“Three still not here yet, huh. Judd get stuck up a tree or something?” Four brushes her hands off on her skirt, watching Pearl cling to a shouting Emperor’s back in mild amusement.

“Judd’s right there.” Eight points at the laptop screen. The cat in question is loafing on a pillow on the kotatsu Callie and Marie are sitting at, Lil’ Judd wandering around behind them. “Besides, Cap said he told Three no hero business tonight.”

“Yeah, and since when does Three _listen_ to orders?”

“Uh...all the time, actually? You’re the one who never pays attention to what Cap says.”

“ _Hey_.”

“ _Okay!_ ” Marina claps her hands, subtle as a splat bomb. “Eight, why don’t you go get the games out while Four and I carry the drinks in?”

The front door slams and Pearl shouts “DRIVE SAFE, BABY BRO!” from the entryway. Eight nods and gets out of the chair. Pearl had gone through the mansion and collected all the games she’d thought would be fun to play earlier in the day and put them on Eight’s bed; they hadn’t brought them out earlier because, in Marina’s words, “Emperor can be...a little competitive.”.

It’s mostly board games and card games, which seems old-fashioned to be playing during a ceremony intended to welcome in a new year, but it’s not like Eight has any benchmark for how this is supposed to go. The passing of one year to the next mostly went unnoticed underground. All of this - the lights and noise and careful planning around family and friends - is entirely new to him. Before this, Eight hadn’t even _had_ a family or friends.

Now, he thinks, as he brings the carefully-stacked boxes to the living room, he has all of this. Callie and Marie are singing some advertising jingle on their show, voices tinny on the laptop speakers. Four is slumped on the couch, eating shredded cheese right out of the bag for some reason. Pearl and Marina are in the doorway, arms around each other in a loose casual way, speaking in quiet tones.

He’s got a family, now. He’s got friends. He has reasons to celebrate.

Eight sets down the games on the floor next to the table as the doorbell goes off. He feels himself tense, involuntarily; Four abandons the cheese and vaults backwards over the couch before anyone else can make a move.

“Damn,” Pearl says. Marina lightly pinches her arm.

“What’ve I told you about swearing in front of Eight?”

“Oh, come on. He’s heard worse!”

“From _you_.”

“So,” Four announces, entering the living room and cutting the not-argument short. “Look at what _this_ clownfish brought.”

“‘m not a clownfish.” Agent 3’s voice is soft but unmistakable, commanding the entire room’s attention with no effort at all. Eight slowly stands up, hovering just behind Marina. Four has Cap’s platter of crabby cakes - predictably, looking a little light - and Three is holding a big box of...light-up glasses? They’re wearing a pair, too, which is doing an amazing job of hiding the scarring on their face. “A jellyfish in the Square was giving them out for free.”

“The _Square?_ Why were you in the _Square?_ There’s a direct line from the Heights to here!” Four is already chowing down on a crabby cake but still manages to sound incredulous. Eight frowns and scoots past Marina. If he doesn’t get at the cakes now, he’s got a feeling he’s not going to get one at all.

“...wanted to see the lights.”

“Oh my _cod_ , you are such a _nerd_. I’m going to tell everyone how much of a _nerd_ you are. Hey, Eight.” Four whips around, cruelly taking the platter out of Eight’s reach. “Did you know that our esteemed leader is a _nerd?_ ”

“They’re not a nerd,” Eight says, trying to reach around Four as Marina finally stops laughing long enough to suggest that, maybe, they should put the cakes and glasses in the living room with everything else so they can get the party started. Everyone shuffles around each other (Three forgets to take their shoes off and has to go back, still carrying the box of glasses for some reason) until, eventually, they’re all settled.

There are drinks - champagne for Pearl and Marina; extra-pulp OJ for Eight and Three and no-pulp OJ for Four (“Get out of my house,” Pearl said, and nobody could quite tell if she was joking or not). There are games - Pearl is just as competitive as her brother and Four even moreso, and Marina eventually calls an end to Fishopoly before any ink is spilled. They watch Callie and Marie talk about the New Year traditions of Calamari County and share they mochi they’d made earlier in the day on their livestream. And they watch the crowd in Inkopolis Square gradually get bigger and bigger, Inklings and Octolings and jellyfish and all other sorts cheering and waving banners and wearing silly hats, all waiting for the ball to drop.

“You know, Inkopolis News asked us to host the ball drop this year,” Pearl says, close to midnight. She’s curled up in Marina’s lap, spinning her crown lazily on one finger.

“And you turned it down? _Dude_.” Four’s on her third bag of cheese. Eight didn’t even know Pearl and Marina had that much cheese. Did she bring it with her? “That’s like, _the_ primetime deal. You’re gonna lose your spot to, uh…” She squints at the muted TV. “ _The Moray Squeals?_ Ugh.”

“Well, we wanted to spend the evening here. Together.” Marina gently pries the crown away from Pearl and sets it on the table, next to the two empty champagne glasses. “This is Eight’s first New Year on the surface, after all. We wanted-“

“Gotta be _special!_ ” Pearl interrupts. “He’s _family_ now. Gotta show him how family _do_.”

Eight’s face feels hot, suddenly. He can tell they’re all looking at him now, expecting him to say something, but the words are caught in his throat and he can’t _think_ when they’re all staring-

There’s movement next to him on the couch. Three reaches over and squeezes his hand, the barest hint of a smile on their face. Eight takes a breath.

“Thank you,” he mumbles. “I- it means a lot. I didn't have, well, _anything_ before and now it feels like I have so much. I'm...I'm really happy.”

Marina gives him a warm smile. Pearl gives him two thumbs up and sniffles; Eight can see that she’s crying, just a little. Four rolls her eyes but she’s smiling, too. “Okay, enough with the inkworks! It’s almost midnight. Everyone get your glasses on and grab a popper!”

There’s a bit of a scramble for the poppers; a few are suspiciously depleted already and coated in a fine layer of glitter and Pearl refuses any knowledge of what happened. The food is shoved a safe distance away and they all gather around the table, attention ping-ponging from the laptop to the TV as the countdown begins.

_10!_

“I think next year I’m gonna hook the laptop to the TV,” Marina muses.

_7!_

“What kind of resolution is _that?_ ”

_6!_

“Ooooh my _cod_ shutupshutup _shutup_ it’s almost time!”

_4!_

_“WORLD ABOUT TO BLOW - SQUIDBEAK LET’S GO!!”_

_2!_

“Did you _really_ just-“

_1!_

_“HAPPY NEW YEAR!”_

The poppers go off and streamers and confetti and laughter fill the room. Eight catches Marina dip down to give Pearl a quick kiss; on the livestream, Judd and Lil’ Judd begin waving flags in a little synchronized dance, much to Callie and Marie’s surprise. On the TV the Square lights up as the ball drops; fireworks arcing through the sky in a flurry of silent colour. The Great Zapfish unwinds itself from the tower and its cheeks glow white-gold with sparks as it soars over the Square and the cheering crowd below.

It’s the beginning of a new year. It’ll be Eight’s first full year on the surface.

He’s looking forward to it.

**Author's Note:**

> this was written and posted to an rp group i'm a part of on new year's eve. i just haven't gotten around to putting it here until just now. oops!
> 
> i wrote this before i settled on names/personalities for my agents (except eight) so it's...slightly awkward rereading it at this point :T


End file.
